On Monday 16 October 2017 the Council adopted the EU Annual Report on Human Rights And Democracy in the World in 2016.

2016 was a challenging year for human rights and democracy, with a shrinking space for civil society and complex humanitarian and political crises emerging. In this context, the European Union showed leadership and remained strongly committed to promote and protect human rights and democracy across the world.

The 2015-2016 El Niño phenomenon has been one of the strongest on record, affecting deeply the lives and livelihoods of more than 60 million people across 40 countries. It has devastated crops and killed livestock, in some cases dried up water-sources in others caused massive flooding, driven up malnutrition rates, increased disease outbreaks and caused significant migration.

WFP is deeply concerned that the scourge
of hunger and malnutrition is on the increase across the developing world,
with now over a billion hungry people on the planet. The global economic
downturn is exacerbating the impact of the food crisis and increasing food
insecurity for the world's most vulnerable people, reversing progress toward
the Millennium Development Goals.